iblog

Virgil: We'll all have come across flu at some point in our lives. Less commonly referred to as influenza, it is a dangerous virus that spreads during winter and causes as many as 1,000,000 deaths every year (4,000 in the UK). To combat this, most people are strongly encouraged to get an annual flu vaccination, and this demand sets drug companies into a manufacturing rush each winter. However, the problem for such companies is not so much the quantity as the quality of the drug; because the virus mutates over time, it needs to be constantly altered to fit the particular strain that is circulating. It is for this same reason that people have to have the jab again and again to maintain immunity. This is of course expensive, as well as tedious for patients, resulting in many people simply not getting the jab at all. However a new vaccine produced by drug company Acambis hopes to be able to tackle all possible mutations of the most common form of the virus, Influenza A. The drug, appropriately named ACAM-FLU-A, works by targetting a particular protein named M2 that is present in all strains of flu. Previous drugs targetting different proteins showing up on only some of the strains. In a limited human trial, 9 out of 10 patients developed lifelong immunity to flu, however Acambis scientists are now working to perfect the drug before larger human trials. Dr Michael Watson is very confident:

"As a universal vaccine, ACAM-FLU-A can potentially overcome many of the drawbacks of existing influenza vaccines. It can be manufactured at any time of the year, and could be stockpiled in advance of a pandemic or potentially used routinely to ensure population protection against future pandemics."

It is the notion of a pandemic that scares most experts. Analysts claim that a pandemic of the human form of bird flu across the world is "inevitable", and that when this arrives it could kill as many as 50,000,000 people. At this sort of scale, the "winter-only" drugs currently in use would be much less effective in stopping the virus, which would mutate as it moves around. But will the new lifelong jab prevent this kind of catastophe? Whilst it has the potential to immunise most of us to most types of flu we are likely to encounter, Professor Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, states that "larger trials and tests on a wider range of viruses will be needed before the full potential for pandemic protection can be assured."

Virgil: You've taken your dog for a walk on Poll Na Crann beach - known locally as Stinky Bay - and the worst you expect to find is the smell of fermenting seaweed. However it was a lot more fishy when such a dog-walker stumbled upon a huge unidentifiable metal container measuring 27 metres high. The tank, which is so large it can be seen as you pass in a car, was washed up on the west coast of Benbecula, in the Western Isles. The huge object has been described as looking like a "silo". It has no marks apart from two numbers, which experts are trying to use to identify the tank's origin. It is thought that the object fell from a ship, and is probably a bulk storage tank containing liquids. However, despite this sordid diagnosis the incongruent object has been a source of intrigue among the local population. Alasdair MacEachen, assistant director of environmental services at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, commented that:

"It's certainly generated a fair bit of interest with people walking on the beach or just travelling along the road, because you can actually see it from the main road along the west side of Benbecula. It's a big object so you can't miss it, and it's not often you see something like that on the beach."

The authorities are considering anchoring the object down - not to make it a permanent tourist attraction, but rather to avoid any tragedies. As it was so precariously brought to shore, it is likely to continue roll over as the tides wash by, and an object of that size could be fatal to anyone caught in the way of its movement. Furthermore, they want to avoid the silo from rolling back out to sea, where it could become a hazard to any closeby ships. MacEachen continues:

"Although it looks as if it's empty and it's been ruptured, my advice would be not to go too close to it. It's a fairly light construction so you don't want it rolling on top of someone, and with that sort of thing you can never tell. My advice would be to just observe it from a distance."

One can only wonder how such a huge object managed to disappear from a ship without being noticed, and how it managed to get washed all the way back up to shore?

Virgil: It's not a product from Apple, but perhaps the 'i' of the i-Snake is a homage to being yet another revolutionary gadget. The snake is a new surgical device hoping to decrease the amount of invasive surgery needed in hospitals; rather than cut people open, the long thin tube contains motors, sensors (the 'eyes' that surely also contribute to the moniker) and other imaging devices that will stand in for a surgeon's hands. The snake is more flexible, dextrous and precise than any implement previously used, and will make it possible to more safely conduct operations that previously required very invasive techniques. A team from Imperial College London has been granted 2.1 million pounds for the development of the i-Snake. They envisage the tool being used for heart bypass surgery, but also note that it could aid in any number of procedures, such as the diagnosis of problems in the guts and bowels. The ultimate aim for surgeons is to manage to conduct these procedures without any skin incisions at all. Such surgery can leave scars, keep patients in hospital far too long, and involve a much longer recovery time. Health Minister Lord Ara Dazi, who is on the development team, commented that:

"The unrivalled imaging and sensing capabilities coupled with the accessibility and sensitivity of i-Snake will enable more complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures than are currently possible. The cost benefits that i-Snake will introduce include earlier, cheaper and less invasive treatment, faster recovery and procedure times and intangible benefits through an increase in patient care and quality of life."

All of these procedures are to be tested in a lab before they are to be used on any real patients. However despite this caution, the innovation of the device is no doubt only the beginning of a whole range of smarter and more flexible surgery tools that are bringing us closer to the idea of an operation no longer being dangerous. Dr Ted Bianco, director of the Wellcome Trust, comments: "Gone are the days when the surgeon's knife ruled in the operating theatre. The future of surgery is in smart devices like i-Snake."